Cherri Low Horn is a trained artist and an emerging Blackfoot filmmaker.Originally from Calgary Alberta, Cherri graduated from the University of Calgary with a B.A. in Communication and Culture, and a minor in psychology. She worked at the Awo Taan Healing Lodge as a child support counselor for 2 years. She also worked with aboriginal children and youth for both on and off reservation social programs.Cherri studied studio art for a year at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM and was a part of the advance group and a ceremonial manager for the 2005 Coming Home Ceremony; a delegation of 300+ First Nations went to Europe in remembrance of Aboriginal War Veterans with Veteran Affairs Canada.

Mushkeg Productions Inc. – Production Company

Mushkeg Media Inc. is a 12-year-old Aboriginal production company specializing in films and videos about the Native experience, films that deal with contemporary issues facing Canada’s First Nations, their environment, activities, traditions and their struggle for economic and political autonomy. The company is headed by Paul M. Rickard, independent Cree filmmaker and cameraman. Paul’s partner is veteran producer and director George Hargrave. Paul and George have frequently worked together over the last 15 years.Mushkeg Media Inc. has a strong commitment in working with Aboriginal writers, directors and technical personnel and has developed positive relationships and a good reputation with many First Nations communities across Canada and into the United States. We have also trained many up-and-coming First Nation directors, writers, editors, new media specialists, public relations personnel and production crew,

Paul Rickard – Producer

Paul M. Rickard Sinaikoan ihto’towa Omuskego Moose Factory miim northern Ontario. Amostsik issksisitsikopotoisstoyiistsik isstoyiistsi kanaomia’ist akkaaatsiistsi aitsina’po’takiwa.Paul M. Rickard is an Omuskego Cree from Moose Factory in Northern Ontario. For the past 15 years, he has been working as a producer, director and cameraman in collaboration with independent production companies and organizations such as Nutaaq Media Inc., Wildheart Productions, Wawatay, CBC North and the National Film Board of Canada.Paul studied radio and television production at the University of Western Ontario School of Journalism before joining Wawatay Native Communications Society as a television producer. At Wawatay, he shot, edited and produced a bi-weekly public affairs television show for 4 years, as well as a weekly youth program, Video Awashishak.In 1998, he directed Okimah at the National Film Board. This film focuses on the knowledge handed down by Cree hunting leaders, the okimah, and stresses the importance of the annual goose hunt to the survival of traditional Cree culture. Released in 35 mm, it premiered at the Vancouver Film Festival. That same year, the film went on to win the Best of the Fest award at the Yellowknife Far North Film Festival. Paul also directed The Winter Chill, a short dramatic film based on a traditional Cree story that was filmed his community of Moose Factory. He recently completed the feature length documentary Ever Good Hunter Me about the importance of the spring goose hunt told from the perspective of the Cree youth.

George Hargrave – Producer

George Hargrave has been an independent producer and director for over 25 years. He has worked extensively throughout the Arctic and lived in Cambridge Bay and Baker Lake in the NWT. He has a master’s degree in communications from Concordia University. He went to the North Pole in 1987 as co-director and co-producer of North to Nowhere: Quest for the Pole, a documentary film about five Arctic expeditions to the Pole. This film won 3 Gemini Awards in Canada and has been seen by audiences in the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Australia. In 1994, George produced, Broken Promises: The High Arctic Relocation, a co-production with the NFB, which was sold to Radio Canada, CFCF, ATV, SCN, BC Knowledge Network, CKCO, CKY, CFCN, CFRN, Vision TV and TVNC. He also produced Radio Novelas a documentary about Native community radio for TVNC, CFCF and TV5.In 1995, George produced and directed a three-part historical documentary series on Arctic Quebec, History of Nunavik, for the Kativik School Board. He also produced Invasion of the Beer People, a documentary about a heavy metal rock concert in Tuktoyuktuk, NWT – directed by Albert Nerenberg and broadcast on CBC Newsworld in January 1996. The same year, he produced, The Disappearing Forests of Eeyou Astchee, a 46-minute documentary about forestry and the Cree of Northern Quebec, produced for the Grand Council of the Cree of Quebec.

Janice Benthin – Writer

Janice Benthin has a diverse background in scriptwriting and media production. She’s been a humour columnist for three weekly newspapers, a radio commentator, a playwright and the researcher, writer,and producer for many award winning documentary programs. During her career she’s worked on documentaries for NFB, CBC, PBS, APTN, SCN, ARD, BBC, ABC and a whole bunch of other letters too, She’s an alumnus of the Banff Centre Science Communications program and has also completed the master program in Comic Scriptwriting at Humber College, just for the fun of it.

Michelle Smith – Writer

Michelle Smith is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, media artist and educator of Métis origin.Her practice explores urgent social justice issues in relation to indigenous identity andintercultural relations. She uses media and participatory strategies to stimulate dialogue and to provoke change. Her documentary Turbulent Waters (2004) examines the impact of corporate globalization through modern day slavery on cargo ships. Music as resistance from an aboriginal youth perspective is the subject of determiNATION songs (2009).In Buried Traces (2010) Michelle illuminates the struggle of Métis for political inclusion in post-colonial society. Michelle’s work thus far has used the frame of language and identity to celebrate culture and point to stereotypes of difference, which are hidden in plain sight. Ota Nda Yanaan – We Are Here is her interactive website about community mapping, Michif language and culture. She directed Chitimacha for the aboriginal language series Finding our Talk (2010) which won the International Preservation Award at the International Cherokee Film Festival. Michelle is an in-demand speaker on the subjects of Aboriginal identity, technology and youth, and Multicultural Cinema. She has been invited to speak at prominent conferences and institutions such as Visible Evidence 18 at New York University and the Witness Film and Democracy Institute. She holds an MA in Media Studies from Concordia University and currently teaches media and communications at John Abbott and Dawson colleges. Among Michelle’s many accolades are a Gemini for Best Visual Research on Reel Indian, the feature documentary about representation of Aboriginal peoples in cinema and a nomination for Ktunaxa for Best Public Service documentary at the American Indian Film Festival (2009).